Hannah and I went back into the house together. When I shut the door behind us, I was suddenly struck by how very, very

quiet the house seemed to be. Hannah turned to look at me.

"You'd better get settled back down with some ice," she told me. "I'll start getting lunch ready."

She started toward the kitchen. "Do you want ham, or tuna?"

"It doesn't matter," I said. I started to hobble after her. "I'll come in the kitchen with you."

"Well, grab the ice," she told me, and I went to the couch to pick up the ice bag.

Once in the kitchen, I sat down at the table, and put the ice back on my ankle. Hannah began getting sandwich fixings

out of the refrigerator. She was silent, getting down plates from the cabinet, and silverware from the drawer, and setting the stack on the table.

I studied her face, trying not to seem obvious about it.

"Are you mad at me?" I asked her, in a quiet voice.

Hannah stopped long enough to look at me. She didn't pretend to misunderstand what I was getting at.

She sighed a little. "I wish you'd slow down in your decisions sometimes. But, no, I'm not mad."

"I shouldn't have said I'd try on the clothes," I said, feeling guilty. I could still see Adam and her standing toe to toe in the kitchen, arguing, because of me.

Hannah sighed again. "I know it was tempting," she said, in understanding. "The clothes are really beautiful. I can see where you'd like them."

"Do you think they're like what the guys think? Too sexy-looking?" I asked her.

Hannah laid down the silverware she was still holding in her hands.

She sat down in the chair next to the one I had my foot propped in.

"The sweater's very nice. The skirt-" she hesitated, "I think it's too short, yes."

"So it's trampy, huh?" I asked.

"I don't know about that," Hannah said. "But if you wear a skirt that short, a girl should be prepared for a lot of attention. Some of it, positive, and some

of it not so positive."

"The not so positive must be from older brothers," I offered up dryly.

"Uh huh," Hannah agreed.

"I know girls at school whose brothers wouldn't give a rat's ass what their sisters were wearing," I said.

Hannah gave me a steady look. "Maybe so. As brothers."

I looked at her, puzzled. "Huh?" I asked.

"Being simply a brother, an ordinary brother, that's totally different from your situation. Adam, and Brian, too, they feel

parental towards you, Harlie. Like a dad."

I nodded. "Yeah. I know that."

"They look at you in something like that, and they know what other guys would be thinking. They want you to be more than a body, that boys look at, and get the wrong idea about," Hannah said.

I moved the bag of ice on my foot to another spot.

"I don't think Crane, or Daniel, would approve either," Hannah continued.

I sighed. I was getting tired of the conversation. "I know they wouldn't."

"There's something else, too," Hannah said, and I looked at her questioningly.

"What?"

"If this were an ordinary situation, where, as an aunt, she'd been around all your life, and wanted to buy you gifts, and they

were appropriate, then that would be one thing. But, for Karissa to breeze in the way that she has, and just-" Hannah hesitated, "Just

attempt to give you such expensive gifts, clothes, and that bracelet, and all, well, that's something entirely different."

"I think she's just trying to make up for the time she missed," I said, in defense of Karissa.

"Maybe so," Hannah said. "I just want you to realize how it might make your brothers feel."

"What do you mean?"

"Harlie, think about it for a minute. They, or we as a family, can't give you what she apparently is able to. Money-wise. It's hard

on Adam, and Brian, too. To feel that they can't give you the things that someone with more money could."

"You mean Karissa, right?" I asked. "Because they didn't act that way about the money Doc G left me for college. They were

just glad about that."

Hannah looked thoughtful. "That's different. They knew that Doc G left that to you with the best of intentions,

and with his love. And they want you to have the advantages of education that the money can give you."

"So you don't think Karissa's intentions are good?" I asked.

Hannah hesitated. "I don't want you to get upset with me," she said slowly, "but I have some doubts, yeah."

"Well, what do you think she's all about then?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. I might be totally wrong." Hannah waved a hand at me. "Let's not worry about it now. I don't want

to see things with her that aren't really there. Just let things keep moving slow, like they are with her. Maybe things will settle down between her and the guys eventually."

"I don't think that will ever happen," I said.

"Well, we can hope," Hannah said, and smiled at me.

I thought of her and Adam, in the kitchen earlier. "What about Adam?" I asked, in worry. "He got mad at you because

of me."

"It'll be fine," Hannah said.

She got up and went back to pulling things out of the refrigerator.

I thought briefly of telling Hannah about what Karissa had said about traveling to far-away places with her, but before I could

work up the nerve, the back door opened, and brothers began to stream inside.

"Breaking for lunch early," Crane told Hannah, going to the sink to wash his hands.

Hannah nodded, stepping around him.

I got up, holding the bag of ice, and moved the few feet to my own chair. I sat down, trying not to draw attention to

myself. Evan reached over my head to grab a piece of bread from the plate in the center of the table.

"What happened to you?" he demanded, bumping my head purposely with his elbow.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I thought you were comin' out to help with Petra."

Obviously Evan didn't know that Karissa had been at the house for a visit.

"I'll come out after lunch," I told him.

When everybody was seated, I looked in Adam's direction, trying not to seem obvious.

He was quiet. And he looked pensive. Serious. He stayed quiet, too, thru most of the meal. Brian talked to Evan, and

Crane about ranch details, but said nothing to me. I was fine with that. I wasn't anxious for the time when either he

or Adam had something to say to me about Karissa, or the incident with the skirt. I was really hoping that Adam wasn't mad at

Hannah. Just the thought of it made my stomach hurt. I picked up my glass of water and took a big drink.

"How's the foot?" Crane asked me, from his seat across the table.

I swallowed my water. "It's a lot better," I said.

"Good," Crane said.

Other than that, nobody said anything to me during the meal. As my brothers finished, and began getting to their

feet, Hannah asked Brian what time Clare would be getting home from the hospital, and then she asked Crane if

he had a date that night.

Brian said he thought Clare would be home before six, and Crane said that he did have a date, with the mystery female

that he's been going out with.

"Alright. How about you, Evan? Would Nancy want to come over for supper? I thought we might do Around the World tonight," Hannah said.

Evan nodded around his bite of roll. "I'll ask Nancy. Thanks, Hannah."

"Maybe I'll call the Johnson's," Hannah added. "And the Carter's. We haven't had them over to eat for awhile."

"Why?" Adam asked from his end of the table.

Hannah looked down the table at him. "What?"

"I said, 'Why'?," Adam repeated. "Why do you want to have a big get-together tonight, and put all that extra work of company on yourself?"

"It's not a big get-together," Hannah said, in protest.

"It's still extra work," Adam said flatly. "And you have enough to do lately, don't you? Why add more on?"

Hannah gave him a look that was more of a glare. "Maybe because I'd like to have an evening with our friends

and neighbors," she said tartly.

"Okay, fine," Adam said, his voice clipped. "But why tonight? Wait until things have settled down a little."

"When will that be?" Hannah countered. "When will we ever not have an emergency around here? A sick cow, or too many

bills, or one of the kids hurt or sick?"

I winced at the words and looks flying between them. Especially since I was one of those "emergencies" that Hannah

was talking about.

"I'll help you get stuff ready for company," I volunteered, turning towards Hannah.

Hannah nodded, but immediately, Adam spoke up, standing up and shoving his chair up to the table.

"You're supposed to be off your foot," he said, curtly, giving me a sharp look. "Remember?"

I turned my head his direction. "I have been," I said. "I've been icing it all morning-"

"Which is what you're supposed to be doing, right?" Adam countered. I should have heeded his tone, and his

look of warning. But I wanted to smooth things over with him and Hannah. I still felt responsible for the tension between

them.

"Yes," I said, "but it's better now. I can help Hannah if she needs it-"

"The doctor said stay off of it for forty-eight hours, didn't he?" Adam said, his voice raising a little. "Iced and

elevated, right?"

I nodded at him.

"So you know better than the doctor, is that it?" Adam asked, and I felt my face turn warm in embarrassment.

"No, Adam," I managed.

"She said no such thing," Hannah spoke up stoutly, in my defense. While I was grateful for her support, I

thought that she'd done enough of that already today. All it had done was cause trouble between her and Adam, and

make him even madder at me.

Adam's gaze never wavered from my face. He acted as though he hadn't heard Hannah speak at all.

"Then I expect you to follow doctor's orders and stay off your foot, with ice, the rest of today, and tomorrow, too," he

told me. "Got it?"

I nodded at him, feeling miserable.

"Be in for supper," he said shortly, as he passed Hannah's chair.

"Oh, fantastic," Hannah retorted, with sarcasm.

Adam stopped to give her a look, and then he went out the back door. The rest of us, Crane, Hannah, Brian, Evan and I

sat there for a couple of moments, with nobody saying a word.

Hannah got up, too, then, and very quietly, she went up the back stairs.

Evan gave a low whistle, and shook his head.

"Right," Crane said, in agreement, looking a little worried.

"They'll be smooching it up by suppertime," Brian predicted. I shot him a look. I wasn't so sure about that.

"Let's get the dishes done," Crane said, scraping back his chair and standing up. "Come on, Ev."

"Me?" Evan protested, around the bite of roll he still had in his mouth.

"Yeah. You," Crane said, stacking dishes and carrying them to the sink.

Evan got to his feet with a sigh, picking up silverware and glasses.

Which left Brian and I as the only ones still sitting at the table.

I gave him a quick furtive glance, and he looked back at me.

"Come on, hoppy," he said, standing up, and motioning at me with his hand. I stood up, too, and Brian

gestured towards the living room. He picked up the ice bag that had been setting beside my plate, and I followed

him to the other room, though a lot more slowly due to my sore ankle.

I was encouraged by his calling me 'hoppy'. Maybe he wasn't going to bring up the whole skirt disaster of

earlier.

"You got some books or somethin' to read?" Brian asked me. "There's not gonna be a whole lot on TV at this time

of day, is there?'

"No, I guess not," I said. "I've got a book to read."

"Well get settled on the couch," he told me, and I sank down onto the cushions, and he bent down a little to look

closer at my foot.

"It looks better," he said. "The swellings gone down." He put the ice on my ankle.

"It's not hurting," I said, and when he gave me a raised eyebrow look, I added, "Well, not much."

"How about your hand?" he asked. "Need some medicine?"

"Not right yet," I told him.

"Alright. See ya after awhile."

"Okay." I hesitated, and when he had his hand on the doorknob, turning it, I said, "Bri?"

"What?" he asked, turning back.

"I hate it when Adam and Hannah fight."

"I don't think they enjoy it, either," Brian said dryly.

"You know what I mean," I told him.

"Yeah. I know. They'll be fine." He gave me a nod, and went out.

I leaned back against the couch cushions, and tried to read. I couldn't concentrate no matter how hard I

tried. After a few minutes, when I couldn't hear Crane or Evan's voices coming from the kitchen any longer, I

called out, "Crane?"

No response. I sighed. They'd gone out the back way. I went back to trying to read.

7

I fell asleep, and when I woke up, it was because somebody was tickling the bottom of my foot. I jerked

my foot back and opened my eyes.

"Hey, wild child," Nancy said, in greeting, from where she sat at the opposite end of the couch.

"Hey," I said, sitting up straight and catching her hand. "I'm glad you're here!"

"Yeah? How come?"

"Because I'm bored out of my head, and now I have someone to talk to," I told her.

"Well, maybe I won't stay in here and talk to you. What do you think of that?" she said, and grinned at me.

"I won't let you go," I said, and clutched her hand tighter.

"Okay, okay," she laughed. "Turn me loose. I'll stay."

7